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Live Review
by SashaS
29-11-2001
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| Jarvis is Pulp-ing it |
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Live: Pulp
Brixton Academy, London
Wednesday, November 28, 2001
Pulp demonstrate, at first of the three sold-out capital shows, that they are the band with the mostest
It is so nice when one can pick’n’choose own entertainment because it allows for some unusual pairings. My eve’s support was Boz Scaggs, an aging blue-eyed soulboy, before dashing across London to catch Pulp. The ’opener’ is well-executed but time-warped to some bygone values (although not pure nostalgia) with the ‘headliner’ providing a timeless piece of goodies with a smirk, a sigh and a swing.
Pulp have always been the coolest band in the UK because they never really concerned themselves with cool. Jarvis Cocker is in his usual semi-dishevelled state, a tortured artist disguised as a geek and that is his charm. Without wishing to enter discussion about sex-appeal, Jarv is not a pin-up man but a star nevertheless that places him in a strange situation, for artists’ today: his and band’s music is judged on its merit.
And that is something 95% of the Brit-artisans should take a note of: Pulp have never played songs that are trendy, genre bound, chasing sonic and real fashions; their vocabulary is huge and it stretches from crafty pop songs to prog-rockness, from funk to folk, Can-style oddities to music hall and even Brecht’s legacy. No surprise that they managed to persuade the rock-recluse Scott Walker to produce their current album ‘We Love Life’.
Music is what we are here for tonight and the lights are intentionally kept low on the band for the backdrop projections to ‘comment’ and increase impact of the songs. Jarv talks between songs, little stories, acerbic observations, joking, and we all know that he is a master of words as his lyrics prove. Sir Cocker of Sheffield is really the greatest chronicler of British livestyles, peculiar habits, eccentricity, a genuine cross between Noel Coward and Ian Dury, as we mentioned earlier.
Lengthy pieces are mixed with pop-charting ditties – ‘Life Must Be So Wonderful’, ‘My Legendary Girlfriend’, ‘The Night Minnie Timperley Died’, ‘Bad Cover Version’… Their army of devoted fans ovate the material from the current album, ‘The Trees’, ‘Birds In Your Garden’ and ‘Weeds’, and so rightly so. Pulp are a quintessential British band and the blooming best!
SashaS
29-11-2001
Pulp’s ‘We Love Life’ album was released on 22 October 2001 by Universal/Island
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